Travel question: Can we book extra legroom for our long-haul flights?

Q My wife and I are due to travel to Australia via Bangkok on Thai Airways in August. This is a holiday of a lifetime as we are both celebrating our 60th birthdays. My wife has a bad back and I am 6ft 3in. I would have been happy to pay extra for premium economy seats, but there is no premium economy on Thai and business class is prohibitive. They do have free extra-legroom seats. These are allocated at check-in. We really are unable to get to the airport at least four hours before departure in the hope of achieving this. Do you have any suggestions?

Steven L

A On the long haul to Australia, the issue of comfort is a tricky one. On other airlines, such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, premium economy is readily available for flights to Australia. (I particularly like the look of Cathay’s, which appears more luxurious than its business class was on the one occasion I sampled it, in 1988.)

If you booked through an agent and mentioned your height and your wife’s bad back, and specified a wish for premium economy, then you would have cause to complain and ask the agent to find a solution for you – which might involve them conducting a friendly chat with the carrier to try to get a couple of exit seats blocked off for you.

Failing that, you can try to negotiate yourselves in advance for extra legroom. But in my experience airlines are more prepared to discuss the topic with agents than directly with passengers. That is because people seated in exit rows must be able-bodied, and passengers are not always entirely upfront about their level of fitness. If, as I expect, a call doesn’t work, then I am afraid I can see no promising option other than the one you have already discounted: turning up hours ahead of departure to be first in the queue. Thai Airways is one of the now-rare breed that allocates emergency exit extra-legroom seats on a first-come, first-served basis.

Personally I would make it even earlier, five or even six hours, in order to maximise the chance of comfort. (On a three-hop flight back from Melbourne to Manchester once, I did just that; it worked, and a few hours into the journey I was extremely grateful that I had invested the time.)

One other thought: I believe Thai Airways, in common with some other carriers, sells on-the-day upgrades. So it is worth asking at check-in – though a seat in business class could cost perhaps £500 per person just for the first flight to Bangkok, and you would probably need to repeat the process at the Thai capital.

Finally, if you have a stopover planned in Bangkok – or could conceivably build one in – then that will help to limit the discomfort. And congratulations to you both on your milestone birthdays.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder